John Houbolt
John Houbolt | |
|---|---|
Houbolt explains lunar orbit rendezvous | |
| Born | John Cornelius Houbolt April 10, 1919 Altoona, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | April 15, 2014 (aged 95) Scarborough, Maine, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, ETH Zurich |
| Spouse | Mary Morris |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, 1963 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Aerospace engineering |
| Institutions | National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics National Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley Research Center |
John Cornelius Houbolt (April 10, 1919 – April 15, 2014) was an aerospace engineer credited with leading the team behind the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) mission mode, a concept that was used to successfully land humans on the Moon and return them to Earth. This flight path was chosen for the Apollo program in July 1962. The critical decision to use LOR was viewed as vital to ensuring that man reached the Moon by the end of the decade as proposed by President John F. Kennedy. In the process, LOR saved time and billions of dollars by efficiently using the available rocket and spacecraft technologies.